Blog Archives

By Nimish Dubey There has hardly been a dull moment in India since the nation gained independence. Be it scandals, battles, political India After Gandhi manoeuvrings, betrayal, assassinations, riots, victories…the national has seen it all and more. And is continuing to see it. So, it is a colossal pity that there has been no decent…

By Nimish Dubey Most people remember him as the eccentric captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, but The Examiner in an excellent article points out that some of Johnny Depp’s most notable performances have come in films based on books. The actor, who turned 46 on June 9, has the following…

The world of fantasy must be feeling seriously deprived with the death of David Eddings a few days ago. Eddings, like many other fantasy writers, was known for his series of books with the same central characters that enthralled millions of readers all over the world. In his honour, Bookwag presents seven fantasy fiction series…

It started out as a serious travel guide, but by the time Jerome K Jerome finished Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), it was arguably the most humorous book ever written on travel. Basically a narrative revolving around three friends – the author, George and Harris, (and their dog, Montmorency) …

By Nimish Dubey Whatever you associate Sir Sean Connery with, it is certainly not writing about a country, even his own. The man, who many (us at Kunzum.com included) consider to have been not just the first but the best Bond of them all, however, does have a writing streak in him. And it has…

Contributed by Nimish Dubey It is rare to see an adventure or travel being hailed as a literary classic, but this status has been accorded to Apsley George Bennet Cherry-Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World. Apsley Cherry-Garrard is best known for being part of Robert Scott’s ill-fated 1910-13 Antarctica expedition in which Scott and…

By Nimish Dubey How do you reach the center of the earth? And while on the subject, why on earth (pun intended) would you like to travel down the bowels of the planet? Well, both questions were answered in spectacular style by Jules Verne when he wrote A Journey to the Center of the Earth…

By Nimish Dubey Few events have generated as much interest (albeit morbid) as the 1996 disaster on Mount Everest when several climbers perished in an attempt to make the summit. One of the main reasons for this interest is the fact that it inspired arguably the best mountaineering book in terms of narration, Into Thin…

By Nimish Dubey Jon Krakauer added a whole dimension to mountaineering and travel literature when he wrote Into Thin Air in 1996, describing the disaster that claimed the lives of eight climbers on Mount Everest earlier that year. A dozen years later, eleven climbers died on the second highest peak in the world, K2. As…

By Nimish Dubey There have been many books written on the Indian capital. Some have veered to the utterly academic, others to the spiritual, yet others to the role of a simple “see-this-do-that” travel guide and some (alas a very few) have just looked the city through the eyes of a resident. Sam Miller’s Delhi…